When I posted on Friday - "I'm under the impression that nobody on this thread owns any shares of LUCENT. I thought everyone just visits to aggravate each other." I was pretty sure I'd get a few responses.
As a retired LUCENT employee I'm holding plenty of LUCENT stock and I can say that I've lost a lot. I should be treating an ulcer but I'm not.
My losses are mostly paper losses. When I retired my 401K was worth just around $100K. It is worth more than that at the moment and I'm too embarrased to say how much it was once worth. While I was playing and trading in and out of LUCENT within my 401K I made some great moves. One day I made a move that two days later resulted in a big move up. In two days I picked up a little over $50K (it was just a hunch move ... pure luck on my part), however, it wouldn't be long before that paper profit vanished. That was back early in 2000, right before LUCENT and then the market headed down and down and down.
Later I moved out of LUCENT altogether only to come back in and start buying on the dips. Turned out to be a terrible game plan. When I got some AVAYA shares for the LUCENT I held I sold them and purchased more LUCENT. That was at $17 a share. Well, all that has gone up in smoke.
One thing I think I've learned in the last seven years is to no longer be an investor. Don't buy and hold. That's a heck of a strategy. Set limits, have a plan, and be a trader.
About two months ago I took a risk and moved into LUCENT ... risked a bundle and made a little over $6K about 8 or 9 trading days later. I then thought I'd do the same thing again when the stock price settled into something that looked like a risk could be taken again.
Well, that hasn't happened. When LUCENT warned again last September 13 the market took the rug out from under her and she's paying the piper.
And I agree with the one guy who posted earlier that Rich McGinn is a big reason why this stock has hit rock bottom. He wasn't honest when he was CEO and kept trying to prop up the company with flowery excuses and promising that the next quarter would be better when he should have come out and said the company was in trouble because sales were drying up quickly and he knew it.
It'll be interesting to see what happens after Wednesday morning's quarterly announcement.
I have to admit that it was nice to have some wealth on paper for awhile but I've been humbled. If I would have been disciplined enough to make the correct moves then, hopefully, my children would have had more to inherit, and in my opinion, they way things are going in this country they're going to need all the help they can get.
Personally, at my age, I wish the interest rates would rise a bit so my CD's would give me a better return. |
